Cousins battle for control of Hindu group

SummaryA bitter battle has broken out among family members for control of one of the country’s oldest and most respected media companies, Kasturi & Sons Ltd, the publisher of the 132-year-old English newspaper The Hindu and business daily The Hindu Business Line.

A bitter battle has broken out among family members for control of one of the country’s oldest and most respected media companies, Kasturi & Sons Ltd, the publisher of the 132-year-old English newspaper The Hindu and business daily The Hindu Business Line.

At the heart of this battle is the proposed retirement of publisher and the group Editor-in-Chief N Ram and his decision to dig his heels in.

The first casualty in the battle is N Murali, Ram’s younger brother and the company’s managing director. He was divested of his powers this week and replaced with K Balaji, a member of the extended family and also a board member.

According to people close to the developments, the board is split, one supporting Ram and the other seeking his retirement.

These sources said that at a meeting held last September, Murali, who also looked after administrative processes at the company, proposed governance norms for retirement of family members on the board. “While the retirement age for all employees at Kasturi is 60 years, there was no such stipulation for board members. It was proposed by Murali that 65 years be set as the retirement age for board members,” said the sources.

According to the faction opposed to Ram, all members at the meeting agreed to the proposal and Ram, who turns 65 this May, was identified as the first member to step down from the board followed by Murali and N Ravi, who will turn 65 in August 2011 and 2013 respectively.

It was also decided, these sources said, that after Ram’s retirement, Ravi would take over as Editor-in-Chief of the group while Malini Parthasarathy would be appointed the editor of The Hindu and Venugopal the editor of The Hindu Business Line. In a follow-up meeting held in February, however, Ram is said to have declined to give up the positions he holds across the company, including the board membership, the sources said.

In an email response, Ram said: “No retirement age has been stipulated for directors or the editor-in-chief or editor etc.